The present invention relates to an imaging device of apparatuses such as a television camera, and in particular, to defective pixel detection and correction for color solid-state imaging devices, for example, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) device mounted on an imaging device of the one-chip type, though not limited thereto.
The color imaging devices employing CCDs include a color television camera of three chip type including a prism as a color decomposition optical system and three monochrome CCDs.
In the three-chip type color television camera, three primary colors, i.e., red (R), green (G), and blue (B) decomposed by the prism are processed by three CCDs. In the television camera, three monochrome CCDs are respectively employed for red, green, and blue. In the correction of defective pixels, a relationship between a video signal level of a pixel under consideration and video signal levels of pixels adjacent to the pertinent pixel is employed to determine whether or not the pixel is defective. The defective pixel correction is carried out according to the result of determination. For example, JP-A-2003-78821 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,133 describe the defective pixel detection and correction for a color television camera of three-chip type.